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The world must UPDATE
The script for Norm of the North is all done. It's 12 pages and one of the harder movie scripts I've had to make because the movie is that bad. This roughly translates to like 40-something minutes of review, and I'm hoping that I can get it out on Friday, Saturday at the latest. After the script is written, it's largely downhill. Just got to record it up and then match the voice to the visuals - although that gets really ''tedious at some points. Usually the script portion was the easiest, but not this time. You know how Tentacolino made "why the hell did you do this?" decisions. Yeah, Norm of the North made just as many, but with a lot less WTF in them. I mean, the plot - and I still can't get past this - is that Norm wants to save the arctic. He does this by going to New York, and becoming the mascot for the campaign of the guy who wants to destroy the arctic. And as far as I can tell, he didn't have like the intention to ruin it from the inside, because it's later on that another character gives him that idea, while Norm is already knee deep in becoming the guy's mascot. Also, of all of the movies that I'm gonna review, I think I'm gonna throw ''Minions on there (just a long ways off). People complain a lot about the jump to 3D or flash animation doing a lot of damage to the medium of animation. But no. No person or product or invention has done more damage to the medium of animation than the mediums. Not flash animation. Not CGI. Not the jump to television when people had to make cartoons on a shoestring budget like we saw with Fraidy Cat. If I could go back in time and undo any disaster in history, it would be the creation of the Minions in Despicable Me. I'm rambling, that's because I'm in one of those modes. I'm in the mode where my brain is always on, and it's like "do" "do" "do." I haven't been sleeping well, and sleeping less, and I've been needing to remind myself to eat. This is the other side to the "I have lost my interest on this random project/subject and I never want to touch it again." This side is that it occupies most of my waking thoughts. Believe it or not, I've had to struggle to actually get myself to chill off for a few moments, sit down, and play a video game. And this time around it's the Growing Around ''novel. Let's talk about the raw stats. At the start of June, I had around 8,000 words. Now, I'm at 41,000. And this is a significant number. Remember ''Little Cassie? It totaled about 40k words in its entirety. Right now I'm about 5,000 words longer than The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I am closest in length The Tequila Worm (42k words) and by the end of the week I'll probably be past Fahrenheit 451 (46k words). You know, it feels like... this is further than I've ever been before and that kind of stuff fuels the drive. How long am I planning to make the book? Well, you don't really plan that out. The story gets to be as long as it needs to be, at least on first draft. Although on some level, I am worried about the book getting to be too long. I don't think I'm writing something as long as say... The Hobbit (95k words), but if I get past Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone at 77k words, I will definitely be worried. If I'd have to guess how long it's going to be, I'm going to say that I am well into the second act, quite possible the middle of the middle. Or at the very least the end of the beginning of the middle. I'm roughly following the "hero's journey" formula (yes, I really am), and right now Sally has found herself in the stage "the road of trials." Which takes up most of the second act. I'll say that I'm roughly halfway through with the novel. Keep in mind that I expect it to get shortened in future drafts. And there will definitely be a lot of future drafts. I know that this first draft is getting a lot of criticism, and there is definitely work to be done - especially when it comes to things like the prose. The first draft has been primarily a vehicle to get all of the ideas down into a coherent narrative, and I think that that's succeeding. And while I've been harsh to some criticism, I have taken in others - that's where the prologue came from, and considering the poll, that around 90% didn't vote against it, means that it's likely to stay. But I do have a hard time taking criticism, on some level. I mean, some of it I know to ignore - like when people ask a question that is answered in a later chapter. But when it comes to taking criticism, I need people I know I can trust. They have to be willing to communicate. They have to be willing to debate their criticisms, and they have to be willing to agree to disagree on certain points. And they need to see what I'm trying to do. While at the same time, not letting me George Lucas the thing. Believe it or not, I don't want a bunch of yes-men telling me that everything I do is perfect. The ideal thing is someone trying to see my vision, and helping my project align with that vision. And that's a difficult thing to do. I mean, we have this strange idea on the internet where people think "defending yourself from criticism" and "being unable to take criticism" are the same thing. Granted, a lot of people are unable to take criticism, but you've got to keep in mind that not all criticism is the best, even if it has the best intentions of helping the creator make the best product that they can make. Different people have a different vision, different expectations, and all of that stuff. Criticism is about communication, and you can have a lot of miscommunication. You know, a lot of people have complained about the unbelievability of the world of Growing Around, even though it's a fantasy and I can provide countless examples of similar stories that have just as unplausible of a world. I realized that I did something quite unusual - I started headfirst into the fantasy world. In stories like Harry Potter for instance, Harry starts in the "real" world. Sally Dunn doesn't. I considered that route, but it's important to the story that all of the main characters have lived in this world their entire life. Toning down the some of the "unbelievable" stuff would hamper what I think is the main point of the novel/what makes it special, but that's where the criticism on its face was leading me. Sometimes, you've got to do something that sounds counter-intuitive. To address the complaints that the story was too distant from reality, I had to further distance the story from reality. It's kind of like an uncanny valley effect. Future drafts are definitely going to help this along, especially with the first chapter. The prologue is also there to help the reader gauge what they're supposed to expect from the story. What you're watching is indeed distant from reality. Sorry, if you're tired of hearing me talk about this book so much. I got it on the brain, and my brain won't shut off, so... yeah. Norm of the North coming this weekend! Category:Miscellaneous